Speeches & Writings File         "The Oblate Sisters of 
                                                   Providence"

Written by Mary Church Terrell
1615 S St., N.W.
Washington, D.C.

The Oblate Sisters of Providence.

"Do you know who the nuns are that live in that convent?" a friend 
asked me one day as we passed a building on 15th Street near S Street, N.W.
"They are colored," she continued, "and there are so few colored nuns anywhere.  
I wonder what they do."

I resolved to be able to answer those questions satisfactorily
very soon.  And there was revealed to me an interesting bit of history relating 
to a group of people comprising practically one third of the population
of the National Capital.

The Oblate Sisters of Providence live in that building on 15th Stree
near S.  There are three convents of that order in the city with each of
which a school is connected that is taught by nuns.  One of them is St.
Augustine's on 15th Street in which there are 11 nuns who teach 330 boys
and girls.  Another is St. Ann's convent at 310 8th Street Southeast in
which there are 11 nuns who teach about 324 pupils at St. Cyprian's school
at the same address.  St. Ann's convent is named for Miss Ann Atkins who
gave the ground on which it was founded in 1892.  The third is St. Vincent
de Paul's  at 233 I Street Southwest in which there are three nuns who
teach about thirty two children in the first and second grades.  It is the
smallest and was closed for five years on account of lack of funds.
St. Augustine's school takes the children through the ninth grade and St.
Cyprian's takes them through the 10th grade with the help of two nuns from Alexandria.  
Both of these schools prepare the pupils for the senior high school
the Dunbar, the Armstrong or the Cardozo.

It would be hard to find an institution either in a church or out
of it whose beginning borders more on the unreal and improbable than does
that of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.  They owe the founding of their
institution to the French Revolution.  It would seem a far cry indeed from
the violence and bloodshed of that awful upheaval to the calm and beneficence

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of a community of colored nuns in the United States. But the union
between these extremes is very easily shown.

As a result of the French Revolution there were rebellions and riots
in San Domingo and other islands at the close of the 18th and the beginning
of the 19th century. Thousands of refugees, most of whom were French
and nearly all of whom were Catholics flocked to Baltimore and many among 
them were colored. Some of these colored refugees were well educated and
well to do. The spiritual welfare of the colored San Dominican Catholics
was cared for by an order of the Church which had fled from France to Baltimore 
to open St. Mary's Seminary for the education of priests. The colored
Catholics worshipped in the basment of this chapel which is still standing.
And the Church which was organized in 1796 in the basement of this
chapel, which is the oldest Catholic building in Baltimore, was the first
colored Catholic congregation in the United States.

About thirty years later Father Joubert, a Frenchman, who was a Dominican
exile, took charge of the colored children of this congregation and
was greatly pained to find them too illiterate to study the simplest prayers.
There were no public schools for colored children in Baltimore until after
the Civil War. Father Joubert decided to open a school for colored children.
His Superiors thought it would be an excellent thing to do, but lack of
funds would make such a thing impossible, they said. But the French priest
could not bear to let the colored children remain in ignorance, so he went
to Archbishop Whitfield, an Englishman, who heartily approved of his plan
and gave him permission to begin his work as soon as he could.

Then Father Joubert thought of two colored women, Elizabeth Lange
and Marie Magdalene Belas, both French, who were well educated and who, on-account
of lack of funds, had been obliged to give up a free school they had
been teaching in their home for a long time. They confessed to him that for 
more than ten years they had wished to consecrate themselves to God and
had been waiting and hoping that He would show them a way of giving them


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themselves to Him. Greatly encouraged by this enthusiastic response to his plan 
Father Joubert decided not to confine the carrying out of his cherished 
project to these two women. He decided to form a Religious Society of Colored
women, and the founding of the Oblate Sisters of Providence was well on 
its way. Two of the four women who were its first members were French in 
language with the customs and the culture of the French. A third was from
Santiago de Cuba. The fourth, although born in Baltimore, was the daughter 
of French parents.
A house was rented and the young women began their novitiate in June 1828. But
a great many difficulties had to be overcome. The women had to leave the
house in which they had first moved. It was hard to find another and there
was little money to be had. Finally a house at 110 George Street was rented
in which were taken the first vows ever made by colored women in the
United States.
There were many rules laid down for these women who had decided to
become nuns. But the first rule was the most important of all. "The Oblate 
Sisters of Providence" read this rule dated June 5, 1929, "are a religious
society of Virgins of color. Their end is to consecrate themselves to God
in a special manner, not only to sanctify themselves and thereby secure the
glory of God, but also to work for the Christian education of colored
children."
Then the Archbishop put his seal of approval on the new community
as follows: "Having read the foregoing rules formed for the Oblate Sisters
of Providence," said he, "I give my entire approbation as to their being
adopted by that religious society and at the same time highly approve of 
so useful an institution which promises to be very beneficial to religion 
and to the community at large. Baltimore, June 5th 1829.  James Archbishop 
of Baltimore."
But in spite of Archbishop Whitfield's unqualified approval the
women who had made their vows were often uneasy and discouraged. They
They knew that many who had been willing to allow them to teach school,

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strongly objected to having them form a religious society, because they
could not bear the idea of colored women forming a religious community and
wearing the habit of a nun. When Father Joubert mentioned this to the Archbishop
he discovered that his Superior knew more about these objections and
criticisms than he did himself. But none of these things moved Archbishop
Whitfield. He stoof firm. He declared that he had a right to establish any
religious order in his diocese that he chose. He promised to protect the new
community and commanded the good priest to continue his work.
For eight years the habit of the Oblate Sisters consisted of black 
dress and a black bonnet for the street, while in the house they wore a white
cap banded with black ribbon. About thirty years ago, however, they voted to 
change their habit to a black veil and a white guimpe. The sides of the bonnet
prevented a nun from seeing what was happening on either side as she walked.
And although the veil is said to be not so picturesque as the bonnet the nun
wearing it does not take so many risks as she mingles in the traffic on 
the street.
In addition to teaching the children of their group for years the Oblate
Sisters fed, clothed and educated orphan children whom they called "The
Children of the House." But the Archbishop of Baltimore finally transferred 
these children to the Franciscan sisters (white), so that the Oblates might 
devote themselves exclusively to teaching. Many of the first colored teachers
in the District of Columbia were trained by the Oblate Sisters. For many years
the St. Frances school in Baltimore was the only one in reach of the colored
people of the District.
But there came a time when it looked as though the convent would have
to be closed. There were very few pupils in the school. They were $700 in
debt. They had no money and no prospect of getting. The sisters were often
cold and hungry in the winter. Some of them who had been well to do, but had
given everything they possessed to the convent when they made their vows had
to take in washing and ironing and sewing and mending and do any kind of
work they could get. They even began to fear they would not be allowed to

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stay in the convent since the Archbishop had decided their work was at an
end, had about decided to disband the Sisters and suggested that they return
to the world which some of them had renounced many years before.

Seeing their pitiable plight a young Bavarian priest was moved
to come to their aid. "What's the use of trying to do anything?" asked Archbishop
Eccleston. And when he seemed on the verge of denying his request
the priest fell on his knees and begged so earnestly that he be allowed to 
save the order [that] the Archbishop gave his consent. Father Anwander's zeal, and
energy and plans worked like magic. They gave the community a new lease on
life. Money began to pour in. The number of pupils was increased from 1 to
300. He enlarged the chapel and the [school] convent, built a boys' school and a hall
in which meetings of various kinds might be held, formed the Holy Family Society
at St. Frances among both men and women and spent altogether $10,000
every cent of which was paid through his efforts.

When it was decided that the Oblate Sisters of Providence should devote
themselves exclusively to teaching the problem of where and how to educate
them [was very hard to solve] so that they could teach an accredited High School was very hard to solve.
since the institutions in their immediate vivinity excluded them on account
of their race. But some time ago a summer school for the Sisters was organized
in Baltimore by a professor who taught at [Mt.] St. Joseph's College there,
then the summer school of Villa Nova, Pennsylvania and St. Louis University were opened to them and
there is a Normal Summer School at their motherhouse in Baltimore. The other
Sisterhoods of the Church have scholarships subscribed and paid for by the
International Federation of Catholic Alumnae, but the Oblate Sisters of Providence
have no organizations rendering a similar service for them.

Branches of the order were opened at Philadelphia, New Orleans and at
Fells Point, but after functioning for a while they were closed for lack of
funds. At present there are two houses of the Oblate Sisters of Providence
in Leavenworth, Kansas, one in St. Louis, one in Normandy, Mo. one in Alexandria, 
Va. one in Charleston, S.C. one in Havanna, one in Cardenas and one in
Camaguey, Cuba.

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The one hundred first anniversary of the Oblate Sisters of Providence
was celebrated in November 1929 instead of July 2nd, the day on
which Father Joubert received the vows of the four postulants in the presence
of a few firends and placed upon them the habit which made them pioneers
of the first religious community of colored women of the Catholic
Church. The Sunday after the celebration began a mass sung by Archbishop
Curley. The huge cathedral in Baltimore was crowded to the doors and every
availabl space of standing room was taken. In the middle aisle were seated
the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, of the Immaculate Heart, of Notre
Dame, the Servants of the Most Pure Heart, Little Sisters of the Poor and
other communities. Ladies of the Knights of St. John as well as the men wore
uniforms. Music was rendered by St. Augustine's choir of this city, one of
the finest male choirs in the United States. There was a procession of the 
clergy. In the sanctuary was the Consul General of Cuba who was a striking
figure in his uniform.

There were representatives of the Jesuits, the Sulpicians, the secular
priests the Christian Brothers, the Xaverian Brothers, and the Brothers
of Mary. Nothing that could be done to make the celebration of the one hundred
first anniversary of the Oblate Sisters of Providence impressive and
beautiful was omitted.

And now that the community is one hundred ten years old the record
of the Oblate Sisters of Providence shows their complete consecration to
their work, their indomitable courage in the face of heart-breaking trials 
and, with God's help, to carry on for the good of their racial group as long
as it is humanly possible to do so.


Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.